2021 in Review

January 30, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in United States

In 2021, we tried to balance a lot of outdoor time with finally getting to see people in person. We moved out of our downtown apartment and bought a townhouse, and we spent a lot of time exploring our new neighborhood as well. We miss the view from our apartment, but I’m really enjoying having a private door to the outside. The pandemic has continued to be rough in many ways, but we’ve been very lucky to keep having new experiences in our adopted PNW home.

Something I have really learned to appreciate in Seattle is sunlight in January. It’s rare, but when it does happen, the low angle of the light is always beautiful, no matter what time of day. It’s almost special enough to make all of the gray days worth it.

Sunlight through the Boulder River canyon

Nicole at Boulder River Falls

More light through the canyon

In the spring, we spent some time playing in the snow, which I still miss from living in Colorado. Seattle stays pretty snow-free in the winter, but the snowy mountains are just a couple of hours away.

Dramatic clouds around the Mt. Baker ski area

The start of an ill-fated snowshoe trip

Hikers taking a picture on top of frozen Lake Twentytwo

Spring also brought a lot of beautiful flowers.

Spring blossoms

A flowering bush

A striking water lily flower

Jason found many small creatures to take pictures of.

On one of our hikes, Jason spent a long time trying to take the right picture of a dragonfly (I think this one succeeded)

A bee and a flower

Jason has been getting into taking photos of birds, which is concerning for his lens collection

A smaller bee with a bigger flower

A small lizard friend

A coho salmon swimming upstream

Our first camping trip of the year was at the end of a washed out forest service road, and it had an amazing view. The Jeep has opened up a lot of dispersed camping options for us, and we love it.

Photo of a tent next to a Jeep next to a grove of trees, with mountains in the background. — One of my favorite campsites

The summer was full of beautiful landscapes.

The view at Packwood Lake

The view from Dog Mountain

A beautiful autumn stream

Sunset near Mt. Ellinor

The view over the North Fork Nooksack River

A set of small waterfalls

For my birthday weekend we met friends at a cabin near Mt. Adams, where we stared at the views of the mountain at every single time of day.

I woke up at random, saw this sunrise, and made Jason get up to photograph it

Midday

Sunset

Dusk

A selection of water pictures from the summer - waterfalls, streams, and rivers.

Nicole and Martin behind a waterfall

Martin, waterfall model

From the inside of a waterfall

A stream and a sunbeam on my birthday

A picturesque lunch spot on a backpacking trip

The view from one of our campsites

Nooksack Falls

In the fall, Jason had a short work trip to New York. It was wonderful to be able to walk around the city and eat all the amazing food.

Jason had a weekend trip with friends to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree, where he took a lot of pictures of spiky plants.

A cactus in Joshua Tree National Park

Abstracted leaves

The world of Joshua trees

The view at Joshua Tree National Park

Washington is, as always, full of tiny, fascinating plants and animals.

Tiny mushrooms

A spiderweb contrasting with the human-made signage

Cold autumn leaves

Tiny tiny organisms

Since we live four blocks from the zoo, we decided we had to go see the animals.

Happy penguins

Some zebras pass by a giraffe

A resting warthog

I believe this is a Steller’s sea eagle

A passing gorilla

This is a somewhat random collection of photos from around town over the year.

Caprica on our new roof deck

One of the final sunrise views before we moved out of our downtown apartment.

Nicole with the Fremont Troll in our new neighborhood

Floating lanterns at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony at Green Lake

The adventurous Pika at St. Edward State Park.

Pike and the sunset

And then some random photos from day and weekend trips.

The mouth of the Columbia River from Astoria

Nicole points out…something

Nicole and Megan at a beautiful lunch spot

The life of Portland Party Puppy, Instagram star

Albus…sniffing the water

The sun through the trees from our cabin porch on a weekend trip

We ended the year in Astoria with this view of a tree and a cat.

Off to the Islands

July 11, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

At the start of the year, when we weren’t sure what covid would look like by mid-year and whether we’d be vaccinated, we booked a 4th of July trip to Orcas Island as an excursion that would be fairly local but also pretty different from our normal lives. Even when we were able to get vaccinated in April and May, we were excited to spend some time in the islands.

Orcas Island is the largest of the San Juan islands, which are near the Canadian border and are just as close to Vancouver Island as the Washington mainland. The trip from Seattle involves an hour and a half drive and then an hour ferry ride, so it feels like a fairly significant trip. Orcas is known for its beauty and plethora of outdoor recreation opportunities. We stayed in the little town of Eastsound, where we could walk to restaurants and also enjoy water views.

A ridiculously beautiful potato dish (photo/Jason Rafal)

Dinner on a beautiful patio (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first non-food activity was the one I was most unsure whether I wanted to do - a biplane ride. A husband and wife team run a small business taking people on flights in a 1927 biplane, and when Jason said he wanted to go, I decided I would probably be able to get through it without throwing up.

Our plane (which was a whole 5 years newer than the stamp claimed) (photo/Jason Rafal)

After receiving our safety briefing, life jackets, ear plugs, caps, and goggles, we climbed into the plane. We just barely fit in the side by side seat in the front (it was made for much smaller people), and our pilot sat in the seat behind us. Climbing into the plane did not raise my confidence - at first glance, it looks flimsy at best and hazardous at worst. It’s all delicate wings and small sticks tied together. As soon as we took off, though, I felt immediately better. The plane is loud, since it’s not a closed cockpit, but it’s so light that ascending felt effortless.

The view from the air (photo/Jason Rafal)

We saw dozens of sailboats hanging out in coves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the terrifying plane wings in the evening light (photo/Jason Rafal)

For an hour, we flew around the islands, flying to the top of Mount Constitution at 2400 feet elevation before dropping down to almost skim the water. It was exceptionally fun, even as I kept turning sideways to give Jason a little more room to take pictures.

A peek of the Mount Constitution tower (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mount Constitution with the San Juan Islands in the distance (photo/Jason Rafal)

Flying low around an island (photo/Jason Rafal)

Circling while waiting for our turn to land (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we drove to the top of Mount Constitution to take in the sights. The mountain is in Moran State Park, which has lovely forests, lakes, and views of the islands. The top of the mountain has a weird medieval-style tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30s, which is visually confusing but gets you up a little higher to see the views. We could see Mount Baker in the distance on the mainland, as well as some of the Cascades and a tiny bit of Mount Rainier.

In my happy place: on top of a mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mount Baker on the mainland (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rather flustered bird (photo/Jason Rafal)

From the top of the mountain, we took a hike before heading to Buck Bay Shellfish Farm for lunch. This restaurant came highly recommended, and for good reason - it’s casual, has lovely outdoor seating, and the food is great.

After lunch we headed back to the park to paddle board on one of the lakes, where we alternated between laying in the sun and doing some strenuous paddling against the wind.

Jason floats in the sun (photo/Nicole Harrison)

On Sunday we hiked in Turtleback Mountain Preserve on the other side of the island, which had similarly great views of San Juan Island and Canada, and then spent the rest of the day hanging out and browsing the shops in Eastsound.

Some very green marsh scum (photo/Jason Rafal)

We joined the handful of people at Orcas Knob (photo/Jason Rafal)

Foxgloves on the trail (photo/Jason Rafal)

The north beaches of Orcas have exceptional sunsets, so we headed over there at about 9:00 each night to take in the views. There’s no large public beach, but there are a couple of small chunks of coast where we could sit with our fellow sunset seekers and take in the view.

Taking in the colors (photo/Jason Rafal)

The sun touches the horizon on a clear evening (photo/Jason Rafal)

The waves created by boats made a lovely texture contrast (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a wonderful long weekend, only slightly soured by the cancelation of a ferry that resulted in us waiting for about 4 hours to board the next one. I suppose that’s island life.

2020 in Review

January 01, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

I already wrote a little about 2020 in a previous post, As Far West As We Could Go, but it’s been quite a sobering ride. Looking back through photos, it’s bizarre but really nice to see pictures that feel like forever ago when it’s felt like time has been frozen for so long. I’ve been learning to appreciate how lucky we were in 2020, and these photos really back that up.

Right before everything shut down, we had two friends come out to visit us a week apart. Sage and I got tattoos; we went exploring on an island with Martin; we all spent time with Loki before losing him about six weeks later. In the first part of the year, we also spent time at social events without masks, which just looks wrong now.

Family picture with Sage

The initial outline of my tattoo

A man and his stick

A dragon sneaks up during a Chinese New Year celebration

And then, suddenly, none of those things were happening anymore.

A deserted scene in Pike Place Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

We went to Astoria, Oregon and the nearby coast to spend some socially distant time with friends and family a couple times over the year.

We saw a lot of fun and crazy looking plants and animals on our hikes.

We had some wonderful times at lakes.

Paddleboarding on Baker Lake

A sunny morning on Fish Lake

The beautiful view at Picture Lake

Lily Lake in the snow

We also spend some beautiful times at the coast (and sound).

A sunset at Cape Disappointment

Dramatic mountain views from the Dungeness Spit

Riding the ferry back to Seattle from Bainbridge at sunset

Looking out over Samish Bay

A paraglider at the Samish Overlook

I am running out of categories, so here are some random photos from hikes in 2020.

Of course, I have to include some photos of our amazing view of Seattle, especially since we will be leaving this apartment soon. Please enjoy a sunrise, a few pictures of the moon (one with a bonus firework), and a picture of the awful air quality during the late summer fires.

Thanks for following along with this year’s adventures in the Pacific Northwest. It’s been a really rough year in a lot of ways, but we’re grateful to have spent it together in this beautiful place. Hopefully we’ll get to see some of you in person in 2021.

Mount Rainier, This Time in Winter

December 30, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in United States

Between Christmas and New Year’s, we spent a couple of days in a cabin near Mount Rainier. We got incredibly lucky with weather, as we were there between snow storms, and we were able to do a lot of beautiful hiking and snowshoeing.

Some mushrooms that look like potato chips (photo/Jason Rafal)

The lower elevations in the park were incredibly green (photo/Jason Rafal)

A log providing a home for other plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A somewhat rare photo of both of us (photo/Jason Rafal)

We got lucky with weather for the entire trip, but the day we went snowshoeing was amazing - we had a completely clear, bright blue sky above the snow-covered mountain. It was visually overwhelming, but very beautiful.

Jason is enjoying sunstars on his new camera (photo/Jason Rafal)

Following tracks down the slope (photo/Jason Rafal)

Windswept snow against a saturated sky (photo/Jason Rafal)

I insisted on sitting in the snow, but I almost took us both down trying to get back up (photo/Jason Rafal)

A classic winter scene (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a day of snowshoeing, we went to Alder Lake, down the valley from Rainier, and spent some time exploring the otherworldly land of mud and stumps.

A wholly different planet than earlier in the day (photo/Jason Rafal)

In addition to sunstars, he’s also leaning into black and white (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our way home, we decided to hike to a set of waterfalls. The hike was a bit harder than anticipated on tired legs, but the waterfalls were all wonderful.

It had a very Jurassic Park feel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Slightly frozen mud everywhere (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiny, very bright fungus (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a very fun trip to finish off an exceptionally rough year, and I find myself very grateful to be in Washington right now.

Hundreds of Views of Mount Rainier

September 09, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in United States

For Labor Day weekend, we got a campsite near Mount Rainier National Park and had an amazing weekend exploring. It was definitely one of my favorite weekends of 2020.

In our experience, the secret to visiting a national park on a holiday weekend and not going insane is to get up early to see the parts of the park you really want to see, and then spend the afternoon relaxing while everyone is is crowding them. For us, relaxing happened at our large, very forested campsite.

One of my very favorite campsites (photo/Nicole Harrison)

A small lake against the backdrop of shorter mountains in the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Any trip to Mount Rainier National Park, when it’s clear out at least, involves a lot of staring at the weirdly captivating and gigantic mountain. I was used to 14ers in Colorado, but they fit in there; in an area that’s generally much closer to sea level, a peak over 14,000 feet looks very out of place.

The mountain, with the moon above (photo/Jason Rafal)

More views of Mount Rainier (photo/Jason Rafal)

A watchtower perched high above the clouds (photo/Jason Rafal)

We saw a lot of wildlife at the park, even more than we had expected.

A herd of mountain goats (photo/Jason Rafal)

If you squint, you can see a bear in the field (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we went to another area of the park to see some other angles of the same mountain (you’d think it would get old, but it somehow doesn’t).

A waterfall on our hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

Taking a break after a hike up (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mount Rainier in the aptly-named Reflection Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

Another view in Reflection Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

A path to Mount Rainier (photo/Jason Rafal)

A classic view of Myrtle Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

As Far West As We Could Go

August 03, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in United States

I’m not even sure how to talk about 2020. It was a brutal year for so many reasons, and not being able to travel internationally seems very far down on the list, especially since we are privileged in so many ways. We were incredibly lucky to be able to take some time to explore some of the beautiful places a little closer to home this year, and while I don’t usually blog weekend trips, these ones felt extra special this year. On a logistical note, I’m writing this in December, but backdating the trips to when we took them for my future sanity.

We had never really spent time in the southwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula before, so in July we took a Friday off and drove to one of the campgrounds. Driving around the Olympic peninsula always takes longer than I’d expect - it’s not that big, but there isn’t really a way to drive through it - so it ended up being a driving-heavy weekend, but a beautiful one.

On our first afternoon, we saw some of the area near our campsite (near, in this case, meaning within an hour). I got to hang out with a giant tree, which I always love, and we found a beautiful waterfall just off the road.

Self portrait in sunglasses (photo/Jason Rafal)

Approaching the largest Sitka spruce tree in the world (photo/Jason Rafal)

Wide angle makes both me and the tree look much longer (photo/Jason Rafal)

A waterfall with a Jurassic Park feel (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our full day, we drove out to Ruby Beach. It’s a popular destination, but since it’s a pretty long beach, it didn’t feel too crowded. We were there on a misty, somewhat sunny day, and it was really beautiful. Beaches in the Pacific Northwest seem to be characterized by small rock islands close to the shore, which is an excellent feature.

Emerging onto Ruby Beach in the mist (photo/Jason Rafal)

Enjoying the lunchtime views (photo/Jason Rafal)

Watching waves through caves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A shiny shell among the rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Misty rocks on the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Windswept trees through the mist (photo/Jason Rafal)

After the beach, we ventured into the Hoh Rainforest. Since it was mid-summer, the rainforest was fairly dry, but we got to spend some time among mossy trees and waterfalls along the river. There are so many shades of green in the Pacific Northwest forests, and I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.

So many shades of green (photo/Jason Rafal)

Crossing a creek in the rainforest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our campsite was walk-in, had no road noise, and was next to a lake. It was lovely.

Views from the lake where our campsite was (photo/Jason Rafal)

Pretty light at our campsite while Jason cooks (photo/Nicole Harrison)

The view when I took the paddle board out on our final morning (photo/Nicole Harrison)

2019 in Review

January 26, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in United States

2019 was a crazy year for us. We sold our house, moved across the country, got new jobs, missed a vacation due to some awful travel luck, explored a new state, took a surprise trip to Paris a week before our planned Asia vacation, managed to make it back to Colorado for the grand opening of our friends’ distillery, spent Thanksgiving with Jason’s family on the East Coast, and ended the year with a family trip to Morocco and Lisbon. Eight states, eight countries, four continents. An absurd number of travel issues and wonderful new experiences.

We blogged our trips to Canada, Paris, Asia, and Morocco separately, but we also did a ton of exploring in Oregon and Washington, and we wanted to share some of what we experienced outside of our big international trips.

There are a lot of pictures in this blog, so I decided to really push the limit of our new CMS and just create more carousels than should ever be on one page. Please enjoy a snapshot of our first year in the Pacific Northwest.

I’ll start with some photos from our apartment. We love our apartment view, which looks out over Capitol Hill and First Hill. It’s beautiful at all times of day and all times of year. I’ve also included a few pictures from our apartment building’s 41st story rooftop, which has a lovely view of the Space Needle and sound.

The Center for Wooden Boats is a very cool society that gives free boat rides on Lake Union on Sunday mornings. If you’re willing to wait in line to sign up, it’s a great way to get out on the water. We got to hang out on a sailboat with a volunteer who told us about the radioactive tomatoes that grew in Gas Works Park when he was a kid.

In April, we decided to go to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, which is north of Seattle. In order to avoid the rather intense crowds and traffic, we got up absurdly early and got there for sunrise, where we hung out in the fields and took pictures with a handful of other photographers.

In early June, we started out a month of family visits by heading to Astoria to see Nicole’s family. We hung out with friendly cats, hiked through the woods, and took in the views from the Astoria Column.

A few days after we got back from Astoria, Jason’s parents came to visit us in Seattle. While they were here, we did a day trip out on the water to look for whales. We learned a lot about Orcas, transient and resident, and saw a lot of other birds and wildlife as well.

For Pride weekend, our friend Sage came to visit us. Along with partying way too hard, we also went to Whidbey Island and visited some of Sage’s favorite places from when his grandparents lived there.

Seattle has some wonderful parks. These pictures are from Gas Works Park and the Japanese Garden.

At one point during the summer, we spent a weekend on Whidbey Island. We stayed in a cabin in the woods, hiked along the shore, and hung out with some very old trees. It was a good weekend.

I know this may be hard to believe, but I am running out of categorizations. So, here we have A Brief Study in Seattle Architecture.

Emilie and Ally came to visit us in August, and we went to Olympic National Park for a couple of days. It was incredibly stunning - it was a gorgeous weekend, and we had a pretty crazy cloud inversion when we were on Hurricane Ridge. We also did a short but exceptionally difficult hike overlooking Lake Crescent. On our way home, we stopped at a beach to enjoy the sun. The Olympic Peninsula is a pretty incredible place.

We went on quite a few hikes over the summer. They ranged from incredibly rainy to sunny and clear, but they were all incredibly green and beautiful. Goat Lake was one of my favorites.

In October, we met a few friends out by Levenworth, WA for a weekend. Levenworth is a very odd place - it’s a Bavarian themed village, a concept thought up by the University of Washington as a response to the town’s concern about staying financially afloat. Oktoberfest in Levenworth is, of course, a huge thing, and the weekended ended up being a fun combination of outdoor adventuring and tipsy people watching.

We spent a lot of time walking around Seattle with friends, going to parades, drinking coffee, reviewing local art, and everything in between. This collection is an assortment of photos from those random outings.

In November, we went to Astoria to see Nicole’s sister and dad, and our friend Megan met us out there as well. We went to Youngs River Falls, which still had some beautiful fall colors.

In December, we visited Cannon Beach for the first time with Megan and her incredibly fluffy dog, Albus. The Oregon coast is amazingly beautiful, and we had a lovely sunny, misty day on the beach. We also hung out in Astoria again, where we visited the Maritime Museum (this attraction comes highly recommended, and we agree completely).

To finish the 2019 set, here are some of the adorable dogs around Seattle that we were able to see and spend time with. Seattle has some great dog parks and dog events, and we were able to be brief, vicarious dog owners with friends and strangers.

At the Mouth of the Columbia River

June 10, 2018 by Nicole Harrison in United States

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to the riverside town of Astoria, Oregon, which is famous for being where Lewis and Clark spent a miserable winter after finally reaching the Pacific. It’s an old town that is not so slowly becoming a favorite of Portland dwellers and hipsters, and it’s quickly gentrifying as the old houses and shops are remodeled and repurposed. Nicole’s grandparents bought an old house and are slowly doing some restoration.

The grand Liberty Theatre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The riverfront is very scenic, with Washington visible across the Columbia River and massive container ships frequently passing below the bridge on their way to and from the ocean. Wooden supports, remnants of a long-ago burned pier that are now covered in algae, line much of the Astoria Riverwalk.

A very large, very orange cargo ship heading out to sea (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The remains of something that might be a boiler (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After arriving in town and getting some food, Jason and I headed to the Astoria Column, which I saw from outside the restaurant and set my heart on visiting. The Astoria Column is a significant tower on top of a hill that overlooks the town of Astoria, the Colombia and Youngs Rivers, and the dense green forest to the east. It’s an incredible 360-degree view. We hiked up through the dense, green forest from the community college to climb the tower, and then made our way back to the house along the top of the ridgeline.

Nicole is confused by some sticks at the start of the trail (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view of Astoria and the Columbia River from the Column (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The forest beyond the city (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Astoria-Megler Bridge at sunset (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A large private garden that has welcomed the community to spend time there (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Although Astoria is not actually on the ocean, it’s very close, and we had to go to the beach while we were there. We went to Fort Stevens, which had a lot of civil war memorabilia and education in honor of Memorial Day. We greeted the horses and the educators before walking through the forest to the beach.

A typical Civil War-era scene. With a stroller behind it. (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Martha discusses the horses with one of the educators (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Portrait of a mustang (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Surveying the landscape (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Walking out onto the beach (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from the jetty (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Sunday night, after a delicious seafood dinner, Jason, Nicole, and Eric went to the Fort George Brewery to see live music and eat dessert. The band, All Our Exes Live in Texas, was composed of four women from Australia who turned out to be great folk artists who were, for some reason, stopping at a brewery to play at the start of their U.S. tour. The brewery was packed, the music was lively, and the musicians even sang happy birthday to one of the children dancing in front of the stage. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

A sign from above (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A jumble of reflections (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The band (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the music was over and the dessert consumed, we walked back to the house through the city streets and the hillside passageways that allowed pedestrians to walk up and down between the houses. We took about 6 of these passageways while we were in town, but we definitely got the feeling that there were more of these secret paths than we could find in a week.